Loyalty pays recruitment dividends in Australia

Financial Analysts, Executive Assistants, and HR Analysts are just three of the professionals being sought by employers, as candidate movement and the preference for people with solid tenure in previous roles impacts hiring decisions, reports recruitment firm Hays.

According to the recruiter’s latest Hays Quarterly Hotspots list of skills in demand, staff movement is creating vacancy activity as people decide to change employers.

Nick Deligiannis, managing director of Hays in Australia & New Zealand, said, “The movement of candidates onto the jobs market to explore their options and change employers is fuelling an active jobs market. The majority of vacancy activity is the result of replacing departing staff rather than the creation of new roles. Employers will act fast if an employee leaves a business critical role. This movement of candidates between jobs is a trend not reflected in the unemployment rate, but it is a good sign of candidates’ confidence that they can improve their prospects by looking for a new job.”

“As a result overall vacancy activity is expected to increase this quarter. Many employers also tell us they are keen to secure candidates who can start early in the new calendar year. But employers prefer candidates with a solid history of tenure with their previous employers. Candidates who have changed employers often aren’t viewed as favourably as those who have been loyal for several years.”

He continued “We’ve also seen the recruitment process lengthen as employers become more thorough when assessing candidates. They often want to make sure their candidate of choice has a broad skill set so that they gain the most value from new hires.”

According to Hays, another trend impacting today’s recruitment market is the preference for companies to recruit on a temporary-to-permanent basis in order to trial a candidate in the role.

Deligiannis added, “Many employers prefer temporary assignments to not just cover workload peaks, but to trial a candidate to ensure they are a good fit, both in terms of skills and with the business’ culture, before offering them a permanent job.

“Fixed-term contracts meanwhile are also popular as they help control costs. Those candidates prepared to commit to contracts running through until Easter are highly desirable,” he concluded.